Professional Visual Arts for Minority Groups

Aim

Our aim is to make professional grade photography, videography and creative services available to young, minority groups in the community.

Who we are:

We are a pro bono creative agency, made up of highly skilled professional creatives, that specialise in at least one visual art. The team is made up of individuals from a wide array of backgrounds. 

Our vision, simply, is to make professional creative services free and accessible to young people that identify with any minority group in society. This includes, but is not exclusive to:

• Black
• Asian
• South American
• LGBQTIA+
• Physical or Learning Disabilities

The Story:

The idea was initiated following a conversation Luke had with a close friend. She is currently a qualified lawyer, who also runs a pro-bono law clinic in Brixton. The clinic was her idea of giving back to the community she had spent so much of her youth in.

A few weeks later, one of the volunteers in the project but before its inception, had used his social media platform to offer his photography/videography services free of charge to 3 young black entrepreneurs. His intention was to be help his community while being inspired by Black Lives Matter. The response he got was astounding and he was flooded with applications.

This led to a merger of the two ideas. Forming a pro bono company that offered creative services to minorities in wider society, as the demand and need was clearly there.

As a team, we are all too aware of the opportunities and lack thereof for groups and individuals from certain backgrounds or that identify in a minority group. This led to the formation of Be Seen Project, to work as a collective to help make creative services more accessible to those who need it.

What we offer:

As we are working pro bono on all projects, there may be times when we don't have the capacity from our staff/volunteers that month to take on larger projects or particular pieces of work, but unless otherwise stated will always do our best to offer all of the below:

• Professional Headshots
• Access to professional grade photography studios at heavily discounted rates
• Website images
• Product Photography
• Videography 
• Stylists
• Product placement/advertising
• Creative consultation
• Model Portfolio Photography

These are our core offerings that the skills of our team allow us to make available to applicants. As mentioned, because the staff are volunteers, the availability can change depending on their current work demands, but we almost always have someone available that can help on a project.

Moving forward (and discussed below) we are looking to offer the following services:

• Internships
• Experience days on professional sets/bookings
• Workshops

This is subject to funding and future collaborative work with other organisations.

Our use for the funding:

The funding will initially be used to cover the cost of a professional studio space, 1 Photographer/Videographer, 1 Stylist/Consultant and 1 pair of free hands for a total of 12 shoots.

We will also be able to cover the cost of travel for our volunteers who normally have to travel across London.

This allows us to make the whole experience completely free for the young person involved in any given shoot/project, as the only current cost they pay is the discounted studio rates we have agreed. 

Funding allows us to pay our volunteers a nominal fee for the day, albeit significantly below any of our volunteers standard day rate, but at least allows us to provide them with a little thank you for their work.

At the above rates, our initial ask is for the cost of 2 shoots per month for 6months. This allows us flexibility to carefully select who we work with based on the already mentioned criteria for applicants and take any costs away from them.

Funding would also allow us to backdate payment for any costs accrued so far by any of our volunteers.

Further Funding:

If we were to hit our 2nd target amount, this would allow us to put in to place workshops, internships and one day shadowing days with our professionals. The workshops in particular require the most funding, as we would look to be teaching anywhere between 8-20 young people at any given time, creatives skills ranging from photography, editing, modelling and more. 

We have already had preliminary discussions with other charities, councils and social enterprises who believe there is a real need and interest in something like this currently.

This project successfully funded on 17th April 2021